Ring of Fate
by clockworktrain
Summary: Turns out, Jade is really really good at hangman. Oneshot.


Tori put her face in her hands, groaning in misery. She peeked through her fingers and spoke in a quiet, hesitant voice.

"P?"

"Nope!" Jade cackled, drawing the final body part on the doomed stick figure with an indelible marker. She X-ed out the eyes with a grin, making an arrow to mark the figure as _Tori Vega_. Tori groaned.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Beck commented from Jade's left where he was playing Tetris on his phone with his left hand, his right arm slung around Jade's shoulders. "Jade is really good at hangman. Like, disturbingly good."

Tori snatched the paper from beneath Jade's marker, scrutinizing the unfinished six letter word: O _ _ _ E N.

"This can't be a real word. I guessed like every letter in the alphabet!"

Beck paused his Tetris game and gestured to Tori for the paper. Gently plucking the marker from his girlfriend's fingers, he filled in the missing letters with a knowing smile: N.

"Oxygen?!" Tori exclaimed, giving Jade a _look_. "You have to be kidding."

"It's her 'killer word to weed out unworthy challengers,'" Beck said seriously, his mouth twitching with suppressed laughter. Tori mumbled grumpily about oxygen, Jade taking the hangman game back to add more detail to the Tori-corpse.

"Alright," Tori said finally, bucking up her courage. "One more game. _I_ pick the word."

Jade shrugged, smiling self-assuredly. She flipped over the paper and slid it across the lunch table with the marker on top. Tori ripped the cap off the marker and started drawing the gallows from which she would surely be hanging her friend. She twisted her lips thoughtfully, marker hesitating over the page as she tried to think of the perfect word.

"Okay," Jade said after a moment, losing her famously limited patience. "If you're going to take this long, I'm going to get a coffee."

She pulled her wallet from her bag and stalked off for her favorite drink. Tori was still thinking. Beck sat quietly across the table from her, back on his Tetris game — or so she thought. Once Jade was out of sight, Beck leaned forward to show Tori his phone screen. That was _not_ Tetris. Tori took the phone from his hands. The headline of the article on the screen was "World's Hardest Hangman Words." Tori grinned a little sadistically. She drew four short horizontal lines beneath the gallows on her page and handed Beck his phone. When Jade returned, Tori was waiting patiently with her hands folded on the table. Jade narrowed her eyes behind her coffee cup suspiciously, but sat without a word beside Beck.

"I'm ready," Tori announced, holding up the paper for Jade to see.

"E," Jade guessed confidently.

Tori drew the head of her victim.

"R."

Tori drew a line for the body.

"S."

Right arm.

"T?"

Left arm.

"L?"

Right leg.

"A?"

Tori sighed, filling in the second blank. Jade looked at the paper facing Tori silently for a moment. _ A _ _. She glanced at Beck, who was still at his Tetris with practiced nonchalance. Jade pursed her lips. She sipped her coffee. She ran a hand through her hair. She looked back at Tori's paper.

"Oh," she said with a sudden smile. "'Jazz.'"

Tori groaned, filling in the blank spaces and tossing the marker onto the table.

"_Beck_!" Tori whined. "_How_?"

"You think Jade hasn't seen the list of the world's hardest hangman words?" Beck asked with a chuckle, Jade joining in darkly. "I have that bookmarked on my phone for a reason."

Tori picked up the marker and chucked it at his head. She missed by a mile, the marker instead being caught by Andre as he approached the table. He sat, tilting his head to see the angrily-written letters in front of Tori.

"You play hangman with Jade?" he asked sympathetically. Tori nodded, pouting. "Yeah, we've all fallen into that trap. Robbie tried to beat her for weeks."

"Really?" Tori's eyes widened. That was _not_ a challenge for the faint-hearted — and, let's face it, _fainthearted_ described Robbie to a T.

"The stress nearly killed him," Andre deadpanned. Jade grinned.

"Actually Tori," Beck chimed in, Tetris finally lost. "We weren't going to tell you this, but…the stress _did_ kill him. The Robbie you know is a replacement."

"Yes," Jade nodded. "We had a rabbit genetically altered and converted to Judaism. Rex knows the truth. Just don't ever, _ever_—"

"Hey guys!" Robbie appeared out of nowhere, smiling brightly. Rex just blinked.

"_Ever_," Jade reminded Tori in a conspiratorial whisper. Tori looked around the table with wide eyes and three serious faces stared back. She quickly folded the hangman paper and shoved it in her jacket pocket. The rest of lunch went its usual way, but the paper in Tori's pocket gave her an idea. Whether it was sadistic or kind was up for interpretation, but she pulled out her PearBook and started typing.

* * *

"Jade!" Tori screamed as she ran into school. "I did it! You're on!"

"On what?" Jade asked in confusion.

"_Ring of Fate_! I applied, sent in one of your Slap videos, and you're on the show! You're competing on _Ring of Fate_!"

"I'm _what_?" Jade bellowed furiously. As if summoned, Beck appeared at his angry girlfriend's side.

"Jade hates that show."

"Of course she does," Tori's face fell.

Beck turned to his girlfriend. "You should do it, you could earn some cash. Or a car!"

"I'm not doing it!" Jade slammed her locker shut. "So just forget it! How did you even get me on it? They cast bubbly, happy people on that show. Not…me."

"You can be bubbly!" Tori tried.

Jade and Beck stared.

"Alright I sent in a video with both of us and didn't say who was who."

"Then they won't let me on anyway once they figure out I'm me and not you." Jade walked away, apparently done with the conversation.

"Now I feel bad," Tori whined.

"Don't, she hates most TV shows." Beck patted her shoulder awkwardly.

"No, I mean now she thinks no one wants her!"

"Tori, a TV show she hates might not want her. Let's come back down to Earth and think of some _real life _people who want her." Beck smirked and followed his girlfriend.

As it turned out, someone else wanted her too.

* * *

"Welcome to _Ring_! _Of_! _Fate_!"

Jade certainly looked paler and grumpier than her two competitors, but the casting director accepted her without complaint. Tori, Beck and the rest were in the audience cheering her on, and Jade watched them a little nervously. Beck made a heart symbol, Tori and Cat cheered, Andre gave a thumbs up, and Rex and Robbie waved back. Looking a little heartened, Jade clapped slowly as the host, Matt Lumberjack, was introduced and came onstage. His assistant, Shanna Delight, followed soon after in a dress that Beck knew would make Jade want to vomit (Tori loved it though).

Jade still looked a little nervous as she spun the Ring the first few times, but as she correctly guessed more and more letters on the board, and solved her first puzzle, she looked less nervous and more…Jade. Which is to say, she looked smirky and confident. She solved hangman puzzle after hangman puzzle, puzzling Matt Lumberjack with her prowess. She solved so many puzzles that she made it to the bonus round. Matt tried taking her hand to lead her to the bonus side of the stage, but she tore her hand away and found her own mark on the stage floor.

"Well, Jade, you're heading into the bonus round. How do you feel?"

"Fine."

"Alright then, Jade feels fine! Who's in the audience for you tonight. I heard some big cheers earlier!"

"My boyfriend Beck and my friend Cat."

"Great! Now, our bonus category is 'Movies and TV'. How do you feel about that category?"

"Fine."

"Great! Shanna, show us the puzzle. Now we fill in the letters R, S, T, L, N, and E because—"

"Because they're the most popular letters. I know."

"Great! Here's your puzzle."

T _ E S _ _ S S _ R _ N _

"Remember, the category is 'Movies and TV'. You have ten seconds to solve."

Beck had never seen Jade's face light up in such a grin before. She was positively beaming in front of a live studio audience.

"_The Scissoring_!" she shouted and the gang went wild with cheering. That Jade won a game show she hated with her favorite horrifying movie was an irony Beck would never forget. He would also never forget sprinting onto the stage to congratulate her, and getting to kiss his girlfriend on cable television. The whole gang was jumping up and down around Jade, who was cheering as loud as any of them.

"Wait a minute!" Matt Lumberjack interrupted. "You haven't seen your prize!"

Everyone paused. A blue curtain in the corner of the stage draped itself open to reveal a brand new car. The cheering (and kissing, let's be honest) resumed in full force.

* * *

**Y'all I'm back in this fandom. Please review and tell me if you would read a rewrite I'm working on of "Gut Feeling"!**


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